Bitcoin Billionaire: I Regressed to Invest in the First Bitcoin!-Chapter 138: The Game was Rigged

The game was rigged.

From day one.

And no one saw it coming.

While Horizon scrambled and flailed in the aftermath of their million-dollar collapse, while Tamara's poised ambition burned down into boardroom ash, and Evan's cowardice swallowed him whole — Darren Steele stood still.

Because everything… had gone exactly as planned.

And it all began with the Weekly Quest's reward.

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The system reward came quietly. After Darren had invested the first $65,000 venture on NeuraNest, the system had chimed.

Ding!

┏You've completed the Weekly Quest, Strong Start: Strong Start: Begin your first week strong by finding a hidden gem in poor startups and investing in them. Reward for this quest is high tier.┛

┏Reward: UCP – Unauthorized Copycat Protocol.┛

When Darren first saw the name, his brows furrowed. The reward shimmered in red, the color for high-tier rewards.

The name was weird, and everything about it seemed off. Unauthorized? Copycat?

To get more information, Darren tapped the icon, but he would still see that his perception of the reward was a hundred percent correct.

┏UCP allows the user to scan and interpret any existing digital creation — codebase, algorithmic structure, mathematical model, or investment framework — and create a customized derivative. This derivative is legally distinct, functionally superior if edited right, and cannot be traced back to the original.┛

What the fuck kind of reward was that?

Imagine if Gareth Smithers had it. It would be something he would like to have, wouldn't it?

The reward was powerful. Too powerful.

In fact, Darren stared at the interface for nearly an hour that night, pacing the glass corridors of the Steele Complex. A part of him hated it — it felt dirty, underhanded.

He couldn't see himself using a reward like this? Stealing people's framework and ideas with just one glance.

But the system reminded him:

┏Tools are not crimes. The user is the judgment.┛

Still, Darren decided not to touch it. If he was going to, he would need a really good reason.

Well, a really good reason came not very long after.

Evan Kimura's grin, smug and twitching with false confidence, had told Darren one thing during the NeuraNest demo: this man was pretending.

Every time Evan claimed he built it, every time he pushed forward to take credit — Darren's system blinked quietly in his head.

┏This person is being dishonest with you┛

Rather than bringing it up then, Darren had decided to stay quiet, while studying the make up of the relationship between the two. Evan and Lila.

He began to see that Lila was the true creator and the mind behind everything! Evan was the one who got her stuff and hung around so she could pay him back eventually.

But rather than just say that, he decided to ride Lila's back — her code, her sweat, her sleepless nights.

And that meant… Darren couldn't trust him.

He also couldn't accuse him. Not yet.

So he waited, because he knew a person as greedy as Evan would eventually try something.

When one of his security analysts reported that someone had been snapping photos of the Steele Complex from across the street, Darren didn't panic. He played along. He hired a security expert — the big bald one — to tail the tail.

That was when he began laying the trap.

Two Versions. One Victory.

The real moment came that day in the lab.

Lila had stood up casually, said, "Can you keep an eye on the computer? I need to use the bathroom."

Darren looked at her with an intense expression, then he nodded just once. When she disappeared into the bathroom, his gaze rested on the computer, waiting for him.

What did he do?

Well, Darren finally used the reward. He activated UCP and the system scanned the NeuraNest codebase in seconds, separating logic strands, sorting neural loops, and identifying every training protocol like a surgeon.

He saved a full copy — clean, elegant, and bug-free.

Then… he tainted the active one.

Ordering UCP, he made changes as the reward allowed. He corrupted it subtly — introduced overfitting thresholds, memory leaks, and time bomb subroutines that would crash the model once it crossed small-scale thresholds.

A poisoned gift.

That night, Lila returned home, proud of her progress. Evan came knocking soon after, still faking sick. He copied the version from her laptop without her knowing — the infected version — and delivered it to Ryan Anders and Tamara.

They swallowed it whole.

The next morning, Lila showed up with renewed energy.

Darren casually swapped the poisoned code back with the clean, original version. And when she glanced at her screen and muttered, "I could've sworn it was glitching last night…" he smiled quietly and offered no reply.

After they successfully crossed the 96% threshold and she was excited about telling Evan, Darren knew it was time to tell her everything.

As he had told Amelia.

He told her about Evan. About the camera man. About the lies. She was crushed. But she was sharp. Loyal. When Evan came around to her hostel, Lila played her part perfectly as Darren directed her.

"Be a good liar. Act normal. Hide your anger and your excitement."

"No progress today," she lied to Evan with a soft smile. "I'm still working on it."

Evan believed it, leaving her in her room.

That way, the 96% update was safe and Darren's plan grew legs.

For the man across the street — Van, who had been tailing them under Ryan's orders; After Darren and the guard caught him, he and his security detail made Van send photos of Darren and Amelia working on nothing suspicious. Just some late night chats. A few papers. Laptops. Smiles.

Nothing about Lila. Nothing about code.

Had Van sent even one photo of Lila leaving Darren's office… Anders would've questioned Evan. Would've sniffed out the lie. Would've realized he didn't own the real NeuraNest.

Darren didn't want that. He wanted them to continue digging their own graves, allowing their desperation to guide them.

Anders' desperation to humiliate Darren, and Tamara's desperation to be CEO of her company.

So far, people's desperation has been Darren's most efficient tool.

Always reliable. Even in this case.

When Evan secured the $2 million from Tamara to "scale NeuraNest," he proudly brought the funding back to Lila.

He didn't know that by then… she wasn't working for NeuraNest anymore.

Darren had trademarked an entirely new brand — Trendteller. It was sleek. Legal. Untouched by Horizon Strategies. And every improvement Lila built with that funding? It went into Trendteller.

With Tamara's own money!

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This was because she had no contracts with Trendteller. She had one with NeuraNest which was basically no longer a thing, since there was no NeuraNest without Lila Torres.

So when Tamara assumed she had paid to scale her own product — in reality, she had just given Darren's company two million dollars for free.

And it was that money… that funded the creation of Trendteller+.

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And Then Came The Endgame

At the official NeuraNest beta launch, Horizon was ready to gloat. Tamara stood tall. Evan beamed like a child with crayons.

But Darren struck first.

Across town, with cameras flashing and investors watching, Darren unveiled Trendteller. Lila stepped out and claimed her rightful spotlight. Amelia, Rachel, and even Brooklyn Baker — they all played their roles, supporting a product built to shine.

By the time Tamara realized what had happened, it was too late.

NeuraNest crashed under demo pressure. Evan vanished. Her board began sharpening their knives. Her brother's evil smile flashed in her mind.

And Darren? He was pouring himself some expensive, well fermented, celebratory wine.

Ding!

┏Congratulations! You have completed the Monthly Quest: Outmaneuver a Rival.┛